Condenser air lint filter



Dec. 30, 1969 w. THOMAS 7 3,486,313

CONDENSER AIR LINT FILTER Filed Dec. 20, 1967 INVENTOR WA \2 D THQMA 5 Wm iim im diwmfl ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,486,313 CONDENSER AIR LINT FILTER Ward Thomas, Corpus Christi, Tex, assignor to T & P

Mechanical (10., Inc., Corpus Christi, Tex., a corporation of Texas Filed Dec. 20, 1967, Ser. No. 692,133 Int. Cl. B0111 46/26 US. Cl. 55400 5 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present invention relates to lint filter apparatus for filtering fine particles of dust and lint fly from the discharge air being drawn from within the conventional cylindrical bat forming drum in a cotton processing device such as a battery condenser, a lint cleaner, or a lint comber, to withdraw such fine particles from this air prior to discharge of the air outside the cotton gin building and thereby reduce air pollution problems.

It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that a considerable amount of fine particles of dust and lint fly are discharged into the free air outside cotton gin buildings because of the nature of the equipment used in such buildings, creating air pollution problems in these areas. Customarily, a motor driven condenser fan is employed in such cotton gin buildings to establish a stream of vehicle air from the outlets of the cotton gins to cotton fiber processing apparatus which further processes the lint cotton removed from the seed cotton in the gins. For example, a battery condenser is usually connected to the cotton gins by a series of conveying ducts, or lint flues, through which the cotton fibers are delivered from the gin by vehicle air to the battery condenser for development of a bat of cotton and delivery of the same to the gin press. Also, a lint cleaner, or a lint comber, may be interposed between the cotton gins and the battery condenser to clean the cotton fibers being delibered between these two devices. The battery condenser includes a rotary cylindrical drum which is covered with wire cloth or a perforated metal covering, and the condenser fan is placed in suction communication with the inside of the cylindrical drum while the duct or lint flue through which the cotton is conveyed by the vehicle air from the gins opens into the battery condenser housing outwardly surrounding the cylindrical drum, so that the cotton is separated from the vehicle air by drawing the air through the openings of the metal covering on the drum and forming a bat on the exterior surface of the drum which is dotted therefrom and deposited into the gin press. The exhaust air discharged from the inside of the battery condenser drum to the outside of the gin building frequently contains fine lint fly and dust because of the inability of the condenser drum to separate out such fine matter.

Also, in the case of lint cleaners and combers, a perforated drum operating in a manner similar to the condenser drum is usually provided to separate the cotton fibers from the vehicle air and form a bat which is then processed to effect further cleaning of the cotton, as by seating the fibers into rotary saw teeth and rotating them past mote cleaning bars or by combing of the fibers to dislodge further dirt from the lint fibers and upgrade the quality of the cotton. Such lint cleaners and lint combers also involve establishment of suction pressures in the inside of the bat-forming drum of such devices by fans which discharge the exhaust air sucked inwardly through the drum surfaces to outside the cotton gin building. The failure to separate the very fine particles of lint fly and dirt from the exhaust air discharged from the inside of such drums thus constittues a significant source of air pollution in the region of the cotton gin building.

An object of the present invention is the provision of novel lint filter apparatus for further filtering lint fly and dirt from the exhaust air discharged from cotton processing apparatus such as battery condensers, lint cleaners, lint combers and the like and disposing of such lint fly and dirt in a manner which will minimize air pollution problems in the vicinity of cotton gin buildings.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of novel apparatus as described in the immediately preceding paragraph, wherein the exhaust air discharged from such cotton processing apparatus is withdrawn through a rotary cylindrical drum covered with a fine wire cloth to effect deposit of the fine particles of lint fly and dirt on the surface of the drum and produce discharge of the same into a collection receptacle, while discharging the air withdrawn through the surface of the drum and cleaned thereby to externally of the cotton gin building to alleviate air pollution problems.

Another object of the present invention is the provision of novel apparatus as described in either of the two preceding paragraphs, wherein the housing surrounding the cylindrical drum by which the fine particles of lint fly and dirt are separated from the exhaust air of the cotton processing apparatus is designed so as to compress the inlet air in an area thereof in such manner as to effect pneumatic sweeping of the collected particles on the surface of the drum to a hopper to achieve self-cleaning of the drums surface.

Other objects, advantages and capabilities of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention.

In the drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic vertical cross section view of a condenser air lint filter constructed in accordance with the present invention, illustrated in conjunction with a condenser fan and a fragmentary diagrammatic illustration of a battery condenser;

FIGURE 2 is a vertical transverse section view of the condenser air lint filter, taken along the line 22 of FIGURE 1.

Referring to the drawings, wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures, the condenser air lint filter of the present invention is indicated generally by the reference character 10 and is adapted to be disposed in communication with the outlet or high pressure side of a condenser fan 11 by a suitable duct 12. The condenser fan 11 is in turn in communication with the interior of the usual cylindrical drum in a conventional battery condenser 13, of the type usually employed to separate lint cotton from the vehicle air customarily employed to convey lint cotton from the cotton gins, or any intermediate cotton processing devices such as lint cleaners or lint combers interposed therebetween, and form a bat of the lint cotton on the exterior surface of the perforated metal covering forming the surface of the usual rotary drum 14 journaled in the condenser housing 15. The bat formed on the surface 3 of the condenser drum 14 is dotted in the usual manner and conveyed through a lint slide to a gin press, in the manner well known to persons skilled in this art.

The condenser fan 11 is motor driven in the usual manner, as by the electric motor 16 and serves to establish low pressures at the inlet side 17 of the condenser fan housing 18 to create suction conditions which will draw the vehicle air delivered to the battery condenser housing from the gins radially inwardly through the perforated covering of the condenser drum 14, the openings of which are sized to restain most of the lint cotton from passage therethrough and thus achieve formation of the usual bats of cotton .on the exterior surface of the condenser drum 14.

However, it has been found in practice that in pulling air through the condenser drum, fine particles of lint fly and dirt are also pulled through and in most cases discharged to the free air outside the cotton gin building. In accordance with the present invention, this air withdrawn to the interior of the condenser drum 14, which is contaminated by fine particles of lint fly and dirt, is drawn by the condenser fan 11 through the condenser fan housing 18 and conveyed with the discharge air stream from the fan through the duct 12 into the housing 20 of the condenser air lint filter 10, the housing 20 communicating with the duct 12 through inlet 20a. The condenser air lint filter also includes a cylindrical drum 21, which is covered with a fine wire cloth .22, to collect the fine contaminant particles of lint fly and dirt entrained with the air discharged from the fan 11 on the surface of the wire cloth 22 while permitting the air cleaned by passage through the wire cloth 22 to be discharged out the ends of the cylindrical drum 21 to the outside of the cotton gin building.

The housing 20, as will be best seen from FIGURE 1, has a curved upper and sidewall section 23 which extends from a region spaced well above the uppermost surface of the drum 21 to a zone 24 located near to the surface of the cylindrical drum 21 on the side opposite the inlet to the housing 10 and somewhat below the axis of the drum. This configuration of the wall 23 .of the housing 20 thus provides a space 25 above the drum 21 which allows some condenser air to pass over and around the back side of the drum 21, the area of the air passage then gradually diminishing into the zone 24 to effectively produce a laterally elongated narrow nozzle or constricted air passage through which the air discharged from the fan 11 and not passing through the wire cloth 22 of the drum 21 is discharged in a higher velocity air stream directed substantially tangentially of the surface of the drum 21 to pneumatically blow the contaminants accumulated on the surface of the drum 21 downwardly through the discharge chute 26.

The bottom walls 27 of the housing 20, in the illustrated embodiment, extends substantially horizontally from the bottom of the inlet 20a to a point immediately adjacent the lowermost part of the drum 21, where a second constricted air passage 28 is defined like the air passage at zone 24, to assist in contaminant dislodgment from the surface of the drum 21 into theh upper region of the chute 26. The end walls 29 are formed of sheet metal, and have an outer perimeter shaped to correspond to the profile configuration defined by the walls 23 and 27 and the side walls of the chute 26 and a central opening 29a in each end wall whose diameter corresponds substantially to the diameter of the drum 21 axially aligned with the drum 21 for discharge of the air from the interior of the drum to the surrounding ambient air outside the gin building. Conventional resilient annular sealing strips or flashing 30 extends inwardly from the portions of end walls 29 immediately bounding the openings 29a with their free edge portions in sliding contact with the end members of the drum 21 to provide air seals. As the air filter unit 20 is customarily disposed wholly outside the gin building, for example with the portion of the housing 20 adjacent the inlet 20a fixed to an outside wall 31 of the gin building, sheet metal awnings or weather shields 32 inclining downwardly and outwardly from immediately above each opening 29a may be provided to shield against rain entering the openings 29a.

The filter drum 21 is driven in a clockwise direction, as viewed in FIGURE 1, by suitable conventional means, such as a drive motor 33 coupled thereto'by a chain and sprocket drive 34. The direction of the cleaning air stream passing through the constricted passage at zone 24 is in counterfiow relation to the direction of travel of the wire cloth surface 22 adjacent this zone to enhance the dislodgment of the accumulated contaminants.

The contaminants dislodged from the surface of the wire cloth 22 by the higher velocity air streams produced at zone 24 and passage 28 are discharged downwardly through the chute'26 to any of a number of known types of collection disposal facilities. In the illustrated example, these contaminants are Withdrawn by slight suction created by a fan or blower 35 coupled to the chute 26 by a duct 36 and are conveyed by the blower through duct 37 to the inlet of a conventional cyclone collector 38. The blower 35 may be of the conventional scroll type sized to pull only approximately one-tenth of the air being discharged by the condenser fan 11. In this way, about of the inlet air to the unit 10 is exhausted outwardly through openings 29a as filtered air, and the small volume of air drawn through' the chute 26 and duct 36, containing the fine particle contaminants, is directed by blower 35 through duct 37 to the inlet of the cyclone collector 38. This air and entrained contaminants enter the cyclone collector 38 tangentially and spiral downward toward the lower end of the inverted cone portion of the collector, during which theparticle matter separates into the wall region and is discharged at the bottom into a collecting bag or container 39 while the cleansed air reverses the down spiral and moves upward through the center and out the top of the cyclone collector 38.

From the foregoing description of a specific example of the air lint filter of the present invention installed as a filter for the exhaust air from a battery condenser, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the filter unit 10 can be similarly employed to filter the exhaust air from a variety of lint cotton processing devices. It may be employed with equal facility to filter exhaust air from the bat-forming cylinder of a lint cleaner coupled to a common lint flue from a battery of gin stands or to filter the exhaust air from the bat-forming cylinders of a battery of individual lint cleaners or lint combers respectively associated with gin stands or the exhaust air coupled through a common exhaust duct and fan serving a battery of individual lint cleaners, lint combers, or similar lint cotton processing equipment. The filter unit 10 in each instance is merely installed downstream from the exhaust fan serving to withdrawn the exhaust air from the batformin-g cylinder or cylinders of such equipment in sufiicient proximity to the fan to produce the higher velocity air streams at the zone 24 and air passage 28 to dislodge the accumulated contaminant from the drum surface into the chute 26.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for removing fine line fly and dust contaminants from exhaust air drawn by a fan from within batt forming cylinders of line cotton processing equipment and discharged by said fan through an exhaust duct, comprising a housing having an inlet end for passage of entering air from the exhaust duct into the housing along generally parallel inlet air streams, said housing including a pair of laterally spaced vertical side walls and upper and lower transverse walls, a rotary driven filter cylinder in the housing mounted for rotation about a horizontal axis extending transversely of the inlet air streams, first portions of said walls extending upstream from a transverse plane through said axis and normal to said inlet air streams forming an inlet chamber of substantially rectangular cross-section adjacent said filter cylinder wherein the spacing between said transverse walls at said filter cylinder exceeds the diameter of the latter, said side walls each having a lateral air outlet opening adjacent said axis, said filter cylinder tranversely spanning the distance between said side walls and lying wholly between the said transverse walls and comprising a cylindrical screen wall concentric With said axis having a circumferential upstream half-cylindrical portion extending into said inlet chamber from said transverse plane in confronting intercepting relation to the inlet air streams over the whole region extending from immediately adjacent said lower transverse wall over the major portion of the distance to said upper transverse wall and having a circumferential downstream half-cylindrical portion extending from said tranverse plane in the direction away from said inlet end, said cylindrical screen wall being substantially sealed at its opposite ends to said side Walls with its interior in open communication with said air outlet openings for passage of said entering air through the screen wall for exit through the air outlet openings while the contaminants are stripped from the exhaust air and accumulated on the exterior of said screen wall during such passage, said upper transverse wall having a second portion extending outwardly in progressively converging relation about said downstream half-cylindrical portion from a maximum spacing near said transverse plane to a minimum spacing defining a constricted cleaning air passage between the upper transverse wall and screen wall at a location below the level of said axis, said second portion of the upper transverse wall collectively with said screen wall forming a portion of the inlet air stream passing between said upper transverse wall and the filter cylinder into a curving air stream of narrowing cross-section and increasing velocity and discharging the same as a cleaning air stream through said constricted air passage along cleaning air paths outwardly of and substantially paralleling the tangent plane of said cylindrical screen wall at said passage with sufiicient velocity to dislodge the accumulated contaminants from the screen wall and direct them downwardly below the filter cylinder, and collecting means communicating with said cleaning air stream downstream from said constricted air passage for collecting contaminants disodged from said screen wall, and said axis of said filter cylinder, being spaced above said lower wall a distance slightly greater than the radius of said filter cylinder to locate said screen wall immediately above and spaced slightly from said lower wall, said lower wall and screen wall defining therebetween a progressively narrowing throat and second constricted air passage for passage of some of said inlet air stream along second cleaning air paths substantially paralleling in tangent plane of said screen wall at the location of said constricted air passage to dislodge accumulated contaminants therefrom and propel the same into said collecting means.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said first portion of said lower transverse wall is a substantially horizontal wall and said housing includes a depending lower wall portion extending substantially vertically downwardly from said lower wall substantially at said transverse plane and said upper wall and side walls include wall portions below said filter cylinder collectively with said depending lower Wall portion defining a downwardly directed discharge chute formation for receiving contaminants from said constricted air passage and having an outlet opening communicating with said collecting means for passage of contaminants to said collecting means.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said collecting means includes suction fan means sized to pull about one tenth of the volume of air discharged by said fan for producing slight suction conditions in the zone between said constricted air passage and said collecting means.

4. Apparatus as defined in claim 2 wherein said collecting means includes suction fan means sized to pull about one tenth of the volume of air discharged by said fan for producing slight suction conditions in the zone between said constricted air passages and said collecting means.

5. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including means for rotating said filter cylinder in a direction so that the portions of said screen wall immediately adjacent said first constricted air passage travel in counterfiow relation to the direction of the cleaning air stream.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,581,363 4/1926 Streun -290 1,720,702 7/ 1929 Streun 55-290 1,910,829 5/1933 Green 55--290 2,009,140 7/ 1935 Knowlton 55290 2,648,396 8/1953 Kirby 55-97 3,083,515 4/1963 Morris et a1 55-29O 3,110,182 11/1963 Moss et al. 55400 3,234,715 2/1966 Cowlin 55400 2,391,863 1/1946 Bowen 55-431 FOREIGN PATENTS 760,046 10/ 1956 Great Britain. 817,030 7/ 1959 Great Britain.

HARRY B. THORNTON, Primary Examiner B. NOZICK, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

